History UsefulNotes / Romania

* In ''{{Twilight}}'''s ''BreakingDawn'', some of the most ancient vampires come actually from Romania, angry at the Volturi clan for destroying their castle and the other romanian vampires.

* [[strike: The Cheeky Girls]] - we're sorry.

Romania has now mostly nationalistic archives from before WWII, and after the commies took over the television and there was only one station - TVR1. It served as a propaganda tool, as well as [[BreadAndCircuses a form of keeping the masses in line]]. Being closed off from all western television ''and'' radio stations (and "pirate" radio stations would give their own western propaganda, rather than talk about trends, stars, etc of the western side), otherwise respected Romanian actors and singers would "[[FollowTheLeader inspire]] [[LostInImitation greatly]]" from western movies and music (as to where, if someone without a NostalgiaFilter and who knows now western and Romanian "oldies" songs alike, would notice between 50% and 90% have ''the same tune''. Seriously). Original creations include SergiuNicolaescu's historical movies about Romania in just about every stage of its history (it'd fit with the commie nationalistic propaganda), a comedy series called BD ("The Diverse Brigate"), and others.

* Eugène Ionesco (Eugen Ionescu) - playwright, TropeMaker of the theatre of the absurd alongside Samuel Beckett back in TheFifties.

By 1988-1989, the entire network's runtime had been reduced to two hours, containing mostly patriotic songs. The people were not amused. People could still watch foreign stations with make-shift (or very expensive, depending on the case) "black market" parabolic antennas. For the worst of those, they could see Russian, Moldovan and Bulgarian stations. For the best, they could tune to French ones.

Film rights and airing were scarce, but televisions tried. While the copyright law made it fair game (''now, in 2010'', in Moldova, there are still reports of movies being aired directly from downloaded from the internet by national stations), we didn't really needed the problems. On the other hand, television ratings were nonexistent until the 2000s (even 2005). This implied nothing short of porn could be aired all day or all night (there was also a bit of a cutum to forbid porn film entirely as "attempting to the public moral" or something). 16+ horrors at 8 o'clock, etc, if you can imagine it, it was aired whenever they liked it. This was partly due to the authorities' fear that they'd be accused of limiting the "freedom of the press" ([[DoubleStandard while stealing everything there was to steal left from the old regime]]), and coincided with the country's "Wild West / Aggressive Capitalism" period, where almost anything, however legal, semi-legal or ''illegal'' it was, was mostly fair game (short of stealing from someone's house: steal millions of dollars from a bank, split up the profit with the country's rulership, profit; you steal an apple/from someone's house, 5 years jail, no discussion).

For the first ten years after the revolution, the film industry was basically dead (it relief for 40 years from state sponsorship; now with the country revitalizing its economy, that was one of the least of the priorities). It didn't help that funds for new films were gobbled up by the same Sergiu Nicolaescu, while copyright commissions gobbled up artists' money rights. This didn't stop the music industry from flourishing though, as a song was cheap to make and record, the first years everyone relied on radio to be transmitted (yes, the same TVR corporation ruling it, and bribes to be aired were not unheard of, and if the national radio station didn't air your song, "you didn't exist" and could hardly sell your albums), and with the introduction of videoclips, half-naked underaged girls to sing high-pitched forgettable songs were not hard to find.

After the fall of Communism in the '90s, television tried to grow, but unfortunately TVR was the only available option and still in the grasp of the Neo-Communists that had come to power. One of the first (free, private) stations was [[http://www.wikinfo.org/index.php/Tele7ABC Tele7ABC]], but the first mainstream television station to hold its ground as leader even today was Pro TV, ''in 1995''.

Romania has a film industry of its own, the most recent notable film from there being ''4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile'', better known in English as ''4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days''.

Romania has a film industry of its own, the most recent notable film from there being ''4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile'', better known in English as ''4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days''.

The Revolution saw 1,104 deaths, with Ceauşescu and his wife receiving a machine-gunning, on camera, as a Christmas present. It too counts as a MeetTheNewBoss, since in the entire chaos the second rung of the Communist Party ended up in power. Try to steer clear of this subject, since there's so many unknowns and suspicious details going around that it's a prime source of EpilepticTrees and PoisonOakEpilepticTrees - where the USA has {{Who Shot JFK}}?, Romania has What Really Happened In 1989? and What The Hell Was Up With The Mineriad?.

* Another AnthropomorphicRepresentation of [[http://hetalia.shoutwiki.com/wiki/List_of_minor_characters_in_Hetalia:_Axis_Powers#Romania Romania]] is mentioned in Hungary's bio and relationship chart, and apparently doesn't get along with her. So far, his/her gender is unconfirmed and they haven't been given a design yet.

Transylvania, setting for "Dracula", is in Romania - now. It was transferred from Hungary at the end of WorldWarOne, and has always been an ethnically mixed country (there is a serious unresolved - on an international level - debate going on about that though, regarding who was there first - science has pretty much said it was likely Romanians, not that it matters anyhow): despite some 400 years of efforts from Hungarian, and later Austro-Hungarian authorities, it's been mostly Romanian at least since the Turkish Wars; despite some 50 years of best efforts from the Commies, the Hungarian "Szeklers" are still there in their old homeland in the east of the province. Traditionally, the south was inhabited by Germans who had come to the Mongol-ravaged land in the Middle Ages, but they mostly packed up and left after the war or were bought the privilege to leave - one of Ceauşescu's brilliant ideas was to sell off Germans and Jews to West Germany and Israel. There is a still a larger-than-average German minority, German in high-schools, and German names on some road signs. Bram Stoker's Dracula was a Szekler, but its inspiration, the "real" Dracula, ''was'' Romanian, although, ironically, not a Transylvanian at all: he was from Wallachia, the southern third of the country.

Used to have a long enmity with Hungary, especially over Transylvania, but that's mostly boiled over by now and the two countries get along well enough. Average citizens from the two countries may still dislike/hate the residents of the other country though.

Romania's entry into World War I mostly came about under pressure from the Allies and promises that they could annex Transylvania from Hungary. It proved to be a disaster, with the Germans, Austrians, Bulgarians and Ottomans all ganging up on a poorly organised army and forcing it to retreat up to Moldova, where they held together for a few more years before finally capitulating. As part of the Peace of Bucharest of March 1918, Romania [[DisproportionateRetribution was reduced to a vassal state occupied by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria, had several of its territories yanked away again and would have a German monopoly on oil exports for 99 years]]. Said peace treaty was never completely ratified because King Ferdinand refused to sign it, and Romania re-entered the war one day before the armistice with Germany was signed and well after the military forces of the Central Powers had been thrashed on the Western Fronts. The Allies eventually kept their word, giving Transylvania to Romania, which had also regained the Romanian-dominated area (Moldova between the Prut and Dniester rivers) in the meantime. Greater Romania was born.

* The Cheeky Girls - we're sorry.

In other words, when someone tries to do a gritty adaptation of Dracula and has him speaking Romanian to up the realism, they're wrong. He should be speaking Hungarian. If they were making a film about Vlad Dracul, Wallachian freedom fighter also known as "the impaler", ''then'' he ought to be speaking Romanian.

The Revolution saw 1,104 deaths, with Ceauşescu and his wife receiving a machine-gunning, on camera, as a Christmas present. It too counts as a MeetTheNewBoss, since in the entire chaos the second rung of the Communist Party ended up in power. Try to steer clear of this subject, since there's so many unknowns and suspicious details going around that it's a prime source of EpilepticTrees and PoisonOakEpilepticTrees - where the USA has {{Who Killed JFK}}?, Romania has What Really Happened In 1989? and What The Hell Was Up With The Mineriad?.

* Nicolae Carpathia, the [[spoiler:Antichrist]] in the ''LeftBehind'' series, is the former president of Romania. OrSoIHeard. He probably doesn't have the same first name as Ceauşescu for nothing, and that's probably the best thing of the series.

* Elie Wiesel - famous Holocaust survivor.

When your best known exports are [[{{Dracula}} a vampire]], a world class gymnast, a recycled 1972 Renault, a highly paranoid dictator and the Cheeky Girls, you tend not to have a good reputation in the eyes of the world's media.

* Nicolae Ceauşescu - the country's dictator between 1965-1989. Initially supported by the West for daring to stand up to Moscow, by the end he had a {{Zero Percent Approval Rating}} and hundreds of volunteers for his firing squad. Generally blamed for [[{{Understatement}} severely mismanaging the economy]], oppressing the people, and generally running the country into the ground.

* Nicolae Ceauşescu - the country's dictator between 1965-1989. Initially popular and supported by the West because of his independent foreign policy, but by the end had a ZeroPercentApprovalRating from the West and ordinary Romanians. Big fan of grandiose, butt-fuck ugly SocialistRealism building projects, destroying and rebuilding large parts of cities and villages, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceauşima Bucharest in particular]], through [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systematization "systematization"]]. Had the [[SarcasmMode brilliant idea]] of paying off the country's entire foreign debt by exporting most of the food and everything produced. [[GoneHorriblyRight It worked]], at the small price of having the population suffer starvation, excessive rationing and ruining the economy. He was so hated that there were hundreds of volunteers for his 10-man firing squad. Thanks to him, we have [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_the_People_(Romania) the world's largest civilian administrative building]]. Whoo-pee-fucking-doo.